Auld Lang Syne
by Lacertae Australis
Summary: "Haru," I opened the box, hearing her gasp again as she saw its contents. "Will you marry me?" L decides that his love for Haru and his dreams of a future with her outweigh the danger that comes with having a weakness. This is a one shot that lines up with an upcoming Death Note story that's in the works. LxOC. Happy New Year!


We sat quietly in front of the television, watching the New Year's Eve special in Tokyo City unfold from the comfort of the last hotel room we'd be in before leaving Japan for who knows how long to go on another case. Haru's sadness radiated off of her like body heat: her knees were pulled to her chest and her chin rested on them, her gaze slightly vacant as she followed the obnoxious broadcaster. My mind wandered to a conversation I had had with Watari a few days earlier.

* * *

"_I don't know what to do, Watari." I confided, slurping at my sugary tea. It had been four days since Sango's death, three days since we'd rescued Haru from Miyazaki, and two days since she'd left her bed. "She hardly sleeps, and when she does, she screams and cries. She hasn't eaten. I think she's dying."_

"_L," Watari said, lowering himself into the chair across from me. I felt a lecture coming on. "Haru is nineteen. Over the past six days, she's been forced to watch as her sister was mercilessly tortured and murdered. She has endured violence of her own and she has decided to leave her life here behind in order to be by your side for the rest of her life. The trauma she's experienced might be too much for her system to take."_

"_When did she decide to leave everything behind?" I asked, a little confused. Haru was incredibly driven: first-seat cellist at To-Oh University's School of Music, and considering how well her internship at the Japanese Philharmonic was going, she was lined up perfectly to ascend to the first seat there right after she graduated in June. She was closer to achieving her greatest dreams at nineteen than most people were at forty. _

_And she was willing to give all of them up for me._

_Watari shook his head._

"_Would she be here right now if she had no intention of coming with you? Would she have allowed her father to believe she was dead if she had intended to return to her normal life?" His rhetoric jolted me into gear and I suddenly felt extremely guilty at the sacrifice Haru was making for me. _

"_I see…" I muttered, putting my thumb to my lips._

"_Good. The last thing I'll tell you is that the poor girl is probably traumatized. She needs you to be an anchor for her right now. A shoulder to cry on, a-"_

"_A husband." I concluded. I saw slight shock creep its way onto Watari's face at my assertion._

"_I was going to say a rock, but I think that a… husband… encompasses all of those things." He replied, shifting. I nodded absently and he cleared his throat. "Is that what you want?"_

"_Hm?"_

"_Do you love her, L. Do you want her to be your wife."_

_I ignored the obvious heart palpitation I experienced upon the word 'wife' being used and attempted to think hard about the subject before rushing into it. My brain said that it would be much more difficult to remain a faceless detective with no known weaknesses if I were to have a wife, especially one I cherished as dearly as Haru. Were anyone to find out that she was my wife, the danger she'd be in would be immense. Children would further lengthen my list of weaknesses and the amount of lives I'd put in danger if it was discovered that I was L. To marry her would be to put her life, and the lives of our children, on the line._

_Yet my heart roared against all of those things. I realized that even while assembling the logical cons of marrying Haru, I'd instantly jumped to the idea of us having children together. I visualized pressing my cheek to Haru's belly when she told me, visualized her, glowing and excited, holding a tiny pair of overalls to her swollen stomach, or sweaty and exhausted holding our baby, not an hour old. I imagined bouncing a toddler on my shoulders as Haru rocked a second child, swaddled in pink. The scenario alone made me smile broadly._

_I thought about my infinite love for her. I thought about holding her near me as we slept, about bathing with her and tenderly washing her hair. I imagined wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her back to my chest as she mixed cake batter, the blush the painted her cheeks and the way her skin bristled as I kissed her neck, the way she would swat at my chest when I dipped my fingers into the bowl and the way I would turn her around and kiss her sweetly to apologize. My heart was fit to burst as I constructed a life for us in my mind._

_I looked up at Watari with resolve._

"_Watari, I need you to arrange for the contents of my security box at the Central Bank of Russia to be delivered here as soon as possible." I answered, rising from the table and walking towards Haru's room. I could feel my caretaker smiling at my back. Remembering something, I looked back at him._

"_And arrange a small spa day for her early New Year's Eve."_

* * *

I had done my best in the past few days to comfort Haru and help her heal, and she had made slow progress. She had bathed this morning and actually eaten the eggs that Watari had made for her. The side of her that was obviously a determinator had yet to return, but there was an inkling of it surfacing beneath her raw, fragile exterior.

Midnight was quickly approaching, and I felt the nerves rising in my stomach and the contents of my pocket become lead-like.

"So, Haru," I started, wiggling my toes nervously. Her eyes moved alertly to me, giving me her full attention. "You plan on coming with me?"

The look on her face was deeply hurt, and her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Of course I do."

"You plan on putting yourself in danger by being with me always?"

"Well, yes." She said, crossing her legs.

"On being by my side while I go about my work?"

"Yes."

"You plan on following me to the ends of the earth?"

"Yes." Her voice was somewhat heated. "Why are you asking me all of this? Isn't it obvious that I'm coming with you? That I'm dropping almost everything because I want to be with you?"

"It is." I answered, getting up and standing in front of her. She looked up at me, raising an eyebrow when I grabbed her hands and pulled her off the couch.

"I want you to know," I started, running my thumbs over the backs of her hands gently. "That I'm grateful for what you're about to sacrifice and that I want to be with you for all of eternity. When I think of my future, which I don't do often, the only part that's clear is you by my side. I want nothing more than to be able to call you my wife."

A soft gasp escaped from her lips as I got down on one knee, loathing how cliché I felt but secretly enjoying the act and the happiness it must have given her, and reached into my pocket, pulling out the little black velvet box that had been so heavy only a minute ago.

"Haru," I opened the box, hearing her gasp again as she saw its contents. "Will you marry me?"

The ring was fairly simple; a thin, antiqued silver band, that carved into small, looped branches around the stone, an inset, oval-cut diamond. She looked intently at it for a long moment, before raising her eyes to meet mine. Fat tears spilled from the corners of her eyes and ran down her cheeks, her lips quivered, and she took quick, shallow breaths through her nose. For a second I feared that I had just broken her as I'd never seen her look this disgruntled, but that fear immediately faded when she clasped her hands, brought them to her, chest, and nodded.

With a smile, I jumped up and took her into my arms, kissing her passionately. She returned it, grasping my shirt as though I'd disappear if she let go.

"_Three! Two! One! Happy New Year!" _The television blared in the background as I pulled away, pulling the ring from the box and slipping it eagerly onto her finger. I noticed that her nails were all painted a dark raspberry, intensifying her light olive skin. The ring fit perfectly on her slender finger and I couldn't help but think that it looked like it belonged there.

"_Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind…" _

"Auld Lang Syne…" Haru muttered, looking at the television, where the crowd was muted as the station played Guy Lombardo's "Auld Lang Syne" for the home viewers. "I love this song…"

On a whim as she started humming along, I put one hand on her waist and picked up her hand with the other, slowly leading her. She rested her hand on my shoulder but raised an eyebrow.

"What are you doing?" She asked, her voice a little hoarse with tears, but her tone happier than it had been in weeks. I shrugged.

"Dancing."

"I thought you didn't dance?"

"Don't ruin this. You love this song, you just got engaged, and your fiancé who doesn't dance is dancing with you. Enjoy it." She wrapped her hands around my neck and I placed my now-free one on her waist, pulling her close to me. She rested her head against my chest.

"Can we do this every year?" She asked softly, the hope in her voice melting my heart. I nodded absently and hummed my approval, making tiny circles on her back with my fingers.

"L?"

"Yes my love?"

"I love you." I smiled broadly and leaned down to kiss her head.

"I love you too, Haru."


End file.
